Fate and Fire
by ShadowSong StarGlaive The Wolf
Summary: [One-shot]Ceteruler seeks mountain none has lived in to rule... the beginnings of what Redwallers call Salamandastron!


A/N Hello, all you faithful readers. Look, it's Shadowsong, back to write another Redwall ficcy. You must expect that from now on.  
  
In the book Mossflower, Boar mentions that there were a few badger lords before Brocktree, though none really established a army or militia. I am writing about who I think is the first ruler of Salamandastron, Ceteruler the Just(I think that is his name... or so it said in Lord Brocktree). It is a one-shot, so it is short but I really hope you enjoy! -Shadowsong CometShard StarGlaive  
  
A warm breeze blew across a badger's face in the sandy dunes, causing him to squint his eyes and stamp on forward.  
  
Ceteruler the badger, followed by his friends the hares, trotted as if in a trance to a towering mountain. In his left paw was gripped a mighty spear, in the other, a shield made of bronze and forged steel. Carved on it were the words: 'To protect all, in battle or peace.'  
  
One of the hares, a sturdy young one with nearly black fur, Cadagra, asked the badger, "I say, sah, are we really and truly going inside that hulkin' thing? It must be a squillion paws high!"  
  
The badger turned around, and Cadagra stepped back.  
  
Ceteruler's eyes were not his; rather, a reddish tinge had veiled them, and they seemed to be that of a possessed beast. Stripes that gave the impression that they had been painted on by a skilled beast swept down from his eyes to back down his neck to draping across his shoulders. His prodigious javelin, tipped with sharpened steel, shook with excitement, though his eyes showed something else.  
  
"Don't you see, young one, that we are nearing the mountain of my dreams? The one that has been showing me where to go, my destiny? It is mine, and I shall rule it for seasons to come!"  
  
With that, the badger turned and sprinted towards the mountain, paws sending up sand, crushing anything in his way.  
  
An older, wiser hare called Dewberry, shook her head with amazement. "I say, chap and chappesses, look at Ceteruler's blinkers, and how he runs!"  
  
Cadagra stared at the sand whipping about. He gawked at the faint figure of his commander in the distance. "I say... I blinkin' don't have anything to say, chaps!"  
  
One of the about twenty hares started running after Ceteruler. "We'll lose him of we don't keep up, laddie buck!"  
  
The hares sped off in pursuit of their overcome badger friend.  
  
Ceteruler arrived at the mountain, and the scarlet in his eyes left him, but his fascination with the mountain had not. His huge paws stroked its sides, and he felt ages of stone and molten rock underneath his battle- scarred and sensitive paws. Peering closer, he noticed a small outlet where the massive rock had opened up. It looked big enough to allow him in. He ducked inside, leaving up spear and shield outside t notify his hares where he was.  
  
"Where has jolly old Ceter chap gone to?" Cadagra asked, staring up at the mountain. "I mean, there's his vermin whackers, but where did he go, wot wot?"  
  
A female, light tan hair placed a paw over Cadagra's mouth, the other clasping a small dagger. "Stay silent, chap, and still! Do you hear that?"  
  
A slight shuffling from an outcrop of rocks caught her attention. One of the hares asked her quietly, "What is it, Palefur?"  
  
Palefur crept towards the rocks, her dagger held close. With a croak, a spear whistled over her head, skimming her long ears. She threw her dagger between the rocks. "Comon, scum, show your faces! Yahhhhhhh!"  
  
Out of the rocks came six toads, one with the dagger caught in his flipper, the rest grasping light lances. Palefur reacted swiftly, ducking and weaving towards the one with her dagger. "I say, you thingimigummies, here's some harefoot! Take that!" She kicked violently out at the one with the injured flipper.  
  
The other hares attacked the toads, fighting paw-to-paw, kicking, punching, stabbing with what weapons they had.  
  
The battle was over in a matter of minutes. The remaining toads hopped off, but only two were alive. The other four slain were kicked out to the sea by the hares.  
  
Palefur backed off, her dripping blade in her paws. "Toads! I can't abide the blighters, nasty things!"  
  
Cadagra had sustained a few injuries, but nothing serious, He wiped away from blood from his side. "Neither can I, Palefur missie. Let's go find Ceteruler, hares!"  
  
The hares gladly accepted the offer, and searched around. Palefur noticed the gap near the badger's weapons and shouted, "Over here, chaps and chappesses! Found where Ceteruler just might be!"  
  
The hares quickly went into the darkness of the hole, not knowing what would happen but each going no matter what.  
  
Ceteruler strode through the emptiness of the extinct fire mountain. The cavern where the original magma was stored was vacant, with it's rough halls made of dried molten rock.  
  
The badger climbed to the topmost area of the extinct volcano, the walls getting rougher with the dried magma. 'When this is my mountain,' thought Ceteruler, 'I shall smooth these walls, set up a forge where the fire is still going, and... more.'  
  
He arrived at a block in the wall, but there were cracks in the wall in the shape of a rectangle around it. Stepping back, the badger took a deep breath and hurled himself at the wall, paws first.  
  
Crack!  
  
The wall split open, revealing a chamber, or a wide hallway. Ceteruler, panting, went in.  
  
The first thing the badger noticed when he entered the chamber was that it was long and seemed to go on forever. Thoughts of his hares and the strange feeling left his head like the ebbing tide. Going down the hall, he become aware of the unnatural smoothness of the walls, like it was birch bark, needed to be written on.  
  
Ceteruler shifted his paws through his rough, homely tunic of brown, searching for his packet of herbs his hares used to heal wounds or summon sleep. Reaching in it, he took a deep draft, for his heart was beating and needed sleep. But sleep did not come.  
  
A flood of thoughts erupted in his head. Ceteruler reeled from them, and then, as if in a trance, picked up a rock on the floor, sharp and long, and began to carve what hadn't even happened yet, but was to come.  
  
Almost an hour later, Ceteruler dropped the chisel, and stepped back, out of his daze, and saw what he had etched on the once-smooth walls.  
  
Badgers, like him, but hefting different weapons. One, lifting boulders larger than the badger. Another, bearing a blade that he knew was large and heavy, a warrior's blade nonetheless. Peering closer, he noticed something.  
  
It was a whip, curved, with an arrow pointing out to sea. Shifting his eyes across the wall, he surmised what had happened, saying it out loud.  
  
"The whip, it must mean something. Like evil, hatred, slavery... searats!" Ceteruler jerked. He hated searats, like any other sane creature. "The arrow, pointing out to sea, that proves it, yes, searats..."  
  
The badger dozed off to sleep, clutching the rock and satchel of herbs.  
  
"Sah! Are you there?" Cadagra peered through the doorway to where Ceteruler was. He gasped at the scent of the herbs; he knew what they were. "Chaps, chappesses, I believe our badger has gone to sleep."  
  
Hares flooded into the room, looking at the carvings, sniffing the air, and sneezing. The aromatic plants had little effect on the hares, since they had not taken a deep whiff.  
  
Ceteruler stirred. Lifting his head up, he asked, "How long have I been here?"  
  
Cadagra shook his head. "Sah, two days!"  
  
Ceteruler stood up and wobbled slightly. "Ah! Better. What have you hares been up to, eh, Cadagra?"  
  
The young hare mischievously smiled. "Well, sah, we've named the jolly place, and set up a table in the middle of the biggest cavern for fodder, you know, food and drink!"  
  
Palefur added, "Yes, and we've discovered lots of rock and such in the forge- er, I mean, the room only a few caverns away from the dining hall."  
  
Ceteruler chuckled. "And what have you named this... this military base, it sounds like?"  
  
Palefur laughed. "Oh, 'twas nothing. Y'see, this place used to be a fire mountain, we can tell by the walls and the hole in the forge floor where it used to spew out. There is a type of lizard, a salamander, or something like that, that lives in fire. Also, we decided that since the first day we came here, it was quite starry out, and for grins, we added a starry word to it's name!"  
  
Ceteruler spread his paws wide. "Well?"  
  
Palefur and Cadagra said together, "It's called Salamandastron!"  
  
Palefur: What a lame ending.  
  
Shadowsong: Shurrup.  
  
Taggerung: Stop arguing and get on with the A/N!  
  
Shadowsong: Oh, right. Did you know that Cream Soda has the weirdest aftertaste?  
  
Taggerung: Shadowsong...  
  
Shadowsong: Oops. Well, review, read my other Redwall fics, and see you next fic. Bye!  
  
Taggerung: Finally...  
  
Shadowsong: Ah quiet. 


End file.
